2010/11/23: CBC: CO2 cuts pledged in Copenhagen not enough: UNEmissions cuts pledged by countries in a nonbinding climate accord last year fall short of what’s needed to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, the United Nations environment agency said Tuesday. The sobering report by the UN Environmental Program comes as climate negotiators prepare for another round of talks next week in Cancun, Mexico.

2010/11/28: PhysOrg: India seeks to resolve climate disputes in CancunIndia is making two proposals for the U.N. climate summit in Cancun in hopes of redefining its global image as a constructive negotiator by helping to resolve disputes that have stymied agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The two proposals, obtained by The Associated Press, address the monitoring of national emissions cuts and sharing of environmentally friendly technologies with poor and developing nations.

2010/11/26: Independent(UK): There won’t be a bailout for the earthWhy are the world’s governments bothering? Why are they jetting to Cancun next week to discuss what to do now about global warming? The vogue has passed. The fad has faded. Global warming is yesterday’s apocalypse. Didn’t somebody leak an email that showed it was all made up? Doesn’t it sometimes snow in the winter? Didn’t Al Gore get fat, or something?

2010/11/22: UN: UN official confident of progress at Cancún climate change conferenceLooking ahead to the United Nations climate change conference beginning in Cancún next week, a senior official with the world body said today that talks could yield real results but was cautious to keep expectations realistic. Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning Robert Orr told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York that he did not expect the conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to deliver a “final answer” on solving climate change but remained positive about the possibilities. “Significant progress is possible in Cancún,” he said. “That is not to say that we expect all issues to be resolved.” “We need a package of decisions and outcomes. One or two [agreements] won’t an outcome create.”

2010/11/22: TEC: Cancun Climate Negotiators No Match For New Energy Alliances[…]In short, the Cancun climate summit reflects two opposing theaters of action. In one, climate negotiators are getting tangled up in the soft lines of national distrust and diplomatic nuance. In the other, their governments and domestic energy companies are busier than ever drilling, mining, processing, and producing the dirty power that perpetuates the fossil fuel era.

2010/11/23: EurActiv: European cities join global effort on climateA number of large European cities are promising to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions as part of a major international initiative to tackle climate change. The initiative was launched at a conference in Mexico City on 21 November 2010. Some of Europe’s biggest cities are among 138 local governments from around the world that have signed the Global Cities Covenant on Climate, thereby committing themselves to implementing measures that will help to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Cities that have already signed up to take part in the initiative include Barcelona, Bordeaux, Brussels, Cologne, Copenhagen, Geneva, Lyon, Malmo and Paris. The covenant was presented at a World Mayors Summit on Climate, held in Mexico City on 21 November. The summit was organised in partnership with the World Mayors Council on Climate Change (WMCCC), ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability, and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). These umbrella organisations bring together many thousands of local and municipal governments throughout the world.

2010/11/24: CBC: Lakes warming faster than airA first-of-its-kind NASA study is finding that cool lakes are heating up — even faster than air. Two NASA scientists used satellite data to look at 104 large inland lakes around the world and found that on average they have warmed 1.1 degrees (Celsius) since 1985. That’s about 2½ times the increase in global temperatures in the same time period.

2010/11/23: Eureka: Developing countries often outsource deforestation, study findsIn many developing countries, forest restoration at home has led to deforestation abroad, according to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The authors say their findings could have significant implications for ongoing efforts to protect the world’s remaining forests, which are disappearing at an annual rate of more than 32 million acres — an area roughly the size of England.[…]In the study, Lambin and co-authors Patrick Meyfroidt (University of Louvain) and Thomas Rudel (Rutgers University) analyzed the relationship between reforestation at the national scale and the international trade in forest and agricultural products between 1961 and 2007. The researchers focused on six developing countries — China, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, India and Vietnam — that underwent a shift from net deforestation to net reforestation during that period. […] In five of the six countries (with the exception of India), the return of native forests was accompanied by a reduction in timber harvests and new farmland, thus creating a demand for imported wood and agricultural products.

2010/11/23: TerraDaily: Indonesia’s billion-dollar forest deal in danger: GreenpeaceGreenpeace on Tuesday warned that a billion-dollar deal between Norway and Indonesia to cut carbon emissions from deforestation is in danger of being hijacked by timber and oil palm companies. The environmental group said “notorious industrial rainforest destroyers” such as palm oil and pulp producers intended to manipulate the funds to subsidise further conversion of natural forests to plantations. The allegations came in a new Greenpeace report called “REDD Alert: Protection Money”, expressing doubts about Indonesia’s plans to use a UN-backed scheme to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

2010/11/23: EUO: Parliament sides with Berlin and Madrid on coal subsidiesThe European Parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of extending until 2018 an EU deadline for closing heavily subsidised coal mines, in line with demands from the German and Spanish governments. The MEP’s opinion is consultative, but increases pressure on the European Commission to change its stance. With the two biggest groups — the centre-right European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats — backing the extension until 2018, the resolution passed overwhelmingly with 465 votes in favour, 159 against and 39 abstentions.

2010/11/26: OpenDem: The politics of climate financeA high-level international report on how financial resources can be raised to help developing countries address climate change is a disappointing and politics-free compromise. Simon Maxwell proposes a way beyond it.

2010/11/25: BBC: Alaska polar bears given ‘critical habitat’The US has designated a “critical habitat” for polar bears living on Alaska’s disappearing sea ice. The area – twice the size of the United Kingdom – has been set aside to help stave off the danger of extinction, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said. The territory includes locations where oil and gas companies want to drill. Environmentalists hope the designation will make it more difficult for companies to get permits to operate in the region.

2010/11/24: EPI: Holiday hungerThis Thanksgiving, 42.4 million Americans — 13.7% of the population — are receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) program, more commonly known as Food Stamps. The number is up from 36.2 million last year and has risen by 15 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

2010/11/24: TerraDaily: US spared hit during record hurricane seasonThe 2010 Atlantic storm season was twice as active as normal but what really amazed forecasters was that a record 12 hurricanes formed but never made landfall in the United States. The hurricanes and 19 named tropical storms over the Americas and the Caribbean during the June 1-November 30 season did contribute to some of the worst flooding in decades in Central and Southern America.

2010/11/27: HotTopic: The gas almost works (more methane)Atmospheric methane levels continued to increase in 2009, the World Meteorological Organisation’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin (summary PDF) confirmed this week. Methane averaged 1803 ppb over the year, up 5 ppb on 2008, and now contributes 18.1% of the radiative forcing caused by current greenhouse gas levels.

2010/11/24: EurActiv: China to outstrip EU’s higher CO2 reduction plansA European Union proposal to raise the bloc’s target for cutting CO2 emissions would have only a limited impact on global warming as any benefit would be easily offset by China’s growing emissions, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist has said. The EU has already agreed a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, but the European Commission and some member states have proposed to increase this to 30%. Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, said the gains from the tougher EU reduction target would roughly equal only two weeks of China’s emissions.

2010/11/21: BBC: 2009 carbon emissions fall smaller than expectedCarbon emissions fell in 2009 due to the recession – but not by as much as predicted, suggesting the fast upward trend will soon be resumed. Those are the key findings from an analysis of 2009 emissions data issued in the journal Nature Geoscience a week before the UN climate summit opens. Industrialised nations saw big falls in emissions – but major developing countries saw a continued rise. The report suggests emissions will begin rising by 3% per year again.

2010/11/26: RCS: Met Office to revise global warming data upwardsGlobal warming has been underestimated due to a bias in measurements made by ocean buoys and ships, the UK Meteorological Office said on 25 November 2010. This could mean that warming may have been as much as 0.03C per decade larger than previously thought, according to Met Office scientist Vicky Pope.

2010/11/23: PhysOrg: Cloud atlas: Scientist maps the meaning of mid-level cloudsClouds play a major role in the climate-change equation, but they are the least-understood variable in the sky, observes a Texas A&M University geoscientist, who says mid-level clouds are especially understudied. The professor, Shaima Nasiri, is making those “in-between” clouds the focus of her research, which is being funded by NASA.

2010/11/22: SciDaily: Cloud Study Predicts More Global Warming[…]In a paper that has just appeared in the Journal of Climate, researchers from the University of Hawaii Manoa (UHM) have assessed the performance of current global models in simulating clouds and have presented a new approach to determining the expected cloud feedbacks in a warmer climate.

2010/11/24: PhysOrg: [GRACE] Satellites reveal differences in sea level risesGlaciers are retreating and parts of the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are melting into the ocean. This must result in a rise in sea level, but by how much? A new measurement of the gravity everywhere around the globe with a pair of orbiting satellites provides the first ever map detailing the rises across different parts of the globe.

2010/11/24: NASA:JPL: NASA’s Savory Sea Salt Sensor to Get Cooked, ChilledThe joint U.S. and Argentine Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft is prepped for thermal vacuum chamber tests at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.[…]Aquarius/SAC-D is an international mission involving NASA and Argentina’s space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. Aquarius, the JPL-built primary instrument on the mission, is designed to provide monthly global maps of how the concentration of dissolved salt (known as salinity) varies on the ocean surface. Salinity is a key tracer for understanding the ocean’s role in Earth’s water cycle and tracking and understanding ocean circulation.[…]The minimum three-year mission is scheduled to launch in late spring of 2011 from Vandenberg Air Force Base,

2010/11/23: PhysOrg: ESA’s ice mission, CryoSat goes liveWith the commissioning of ESA’s CryoSat now complete, the mission has been officially transferred to the operations team. This milestone marks the beginning of the satellite’s operational life delivering ice-thickness data to understand the impact of climate change on the polar environment.

2010/11/25: PlanetArk: Cancun’s Vanishing Mangroves Hold Climate PromiseThis famous beach resort, which will next week host international climate change talks, was itself born from the destruction of a potent resource to fight global warming. Thick mangrove forests lined the canals and waterways here before developers dredged the land to make way for the upscale hotels that now draw several million tourists every year. In the 40 years since Cancun was founded, countless acres of mangrove forests up and down Mexico’s Caribbean Coast have been lost — and the destruction continues.

2010/11/25: NYT: Front-Line City in Virginia [Norfolk] Tackles Rise in Sea[…]As sea levels rise, tidal flooding is increasingly disrupting life here and all along the East Coast, a development many climate scientists link to global warming. But Norfolk is worse off. Situated just west of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, it is bordered on three sides by water, including several rivers, like the Lafayette, that are actually long tidal streams that feed into the bay and eventually the ocean.

2010/11/23: TerraDaily: Indonesia’s billion-dollar forest deal in danger: GreenpeaceGreenpeace on Tuesday warned that a billion-dollar deal between Norway and Indonesia to cut carbon emissions from deforestation is in danger of being hijacked by timber and oil palm companies. The environmental group said “notorious industrial rainforest destroyers” such as palm oil and pulp producers intended to manipulate the funds to subsidise further conversion of natural forests to plantations. The allegations came in a new Greenpeace report called “REDD Alert: Protection Money”, expressing doubts about Indonesia’s plans to use a UN-backed scheme to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).

2010/11/25: Reuters: Japan says extending Kyoto pact is “meaningless”Japan opposes extending the Kyoto Protocol binding only rich nations to limit carbon emissions and will fight for a broader deal even if it finds itself isolated at U.N. talks, a senior official said on Thursday. Nearly 200 nations will gather in Cancun, Mexico, from Nov. 29-Dec. 10 to try to agree on some of the elements of a U.N. deal to combat global warming, although most have given up hope for a new treaty any time soon.

2010/11/26: EurActiv: Commission proposes ban on industrial gas offsetsThe European Commission yesterday (25 November) presented plans to ban the use of controversial international offset credits from certain industrial gas projects in the EU’s cap-and-trade system after 2012. The proposal would bar HFC-23, a refrigerant gas with a global warming potential 11,700 times that of CO2, from its emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) from 1 January 2013.

2010/11/25: EUO: Brussels proposes ban on certain emission creditsThe European Commission has put forward a proposal to ban the use of certain off-setting credits under the bloc’s emissions trading system (ETS). News that firms in developing countries including China and India were netting large windfall profits by intentionally augmenting their production of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC-23) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases caused a stir over the summer, prompting the commission’s move on Thursday (25 November).

2010/11/23: EurActiv: EU, Russia seek ‘common language’ on energyOfficials from Russia and the European Commission yesterday (22 November) marked the 10-year anniversary of EU-Russia energy dialogue and devised ways to overcome the present “lack of trust,” as Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko described the state of relations.

2010/11/24: PlanetArk: Egypt Says Amazed By Ethiopia’s Nile RemarksEgypt said it was “amazed” by Ethiopia’s suggestion on Tuesday that Cairo might turn to military action in a row over the Nile waters, saying it did not want confrontation and was not backing rebels there. Egypt, Ethiopia and seven other countries through which the river passes have been locked in more than a decade of contentious talks driven by anger over the perceived injustice of a previous Nile water treaty signed in 1929. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Reuters on Tuesday that Egypt could not win a war with Ethiopia over the River Nile and that Cairo was supporting rebel groups in an attempt to destabilize the Horn of Africa nation.

2010/11/25: Guardian(UK): Copenhagen climate activists found guiltyTwo Danish protesters are found guilty of organising and instigating violence despite use of controversial evidenceTwo Danish activists who took part in the Copenhagen climate demonstrations last December have been found guilty of organising and instigating violence and vandalism, and have both been given four-month suspended sentences. One of the three judges in the case disagreed with the verdict.Tannie Nyboe and Stine Gry Jonassen were both spokespeople for the Climate Justice Action group, part of the network involved in some of the demonstrations in Copenhagen during the UN’s COP15 climate summit. They have been convicted of four charges, including inciting violence against the police, serious disturbance of the police, interfering with police in the course of their work and destruction of property.The case against them was based, controversially, on evidence gathered by tapping their phones before the conference, and also on video footage taken during the “Reclaim Power” demonstration on 16 December.

2010/11/24: ABC(Au): Sydney Water profits rise along with billsSydney Water has recorded a major increase in its profits, at a time when water bills are on the rise. A report from the New South Wales auditor-general shows Sydney Water recorded an after tax profit of $445.9 million – an increase of almost $200 million on the previous year. The State Government is also reaping more from Sydney Water by way of dividends and tax. But the increased profits have not prevented an increase in water bills.

2010/11/23: TWM: ‘We need to let the ethanol subsidies expire’…Following up on an item from two weeks ago, there are two existing ethanol subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the calendar year, which means Congress may have to act during the lame-duck session to save them — if they’re to be saved. The question is what conservative Republicans are prepared to do about it. Greg Sargent reported today that there may be “a new intra-GOP war brewing” over this issue — by some measures, more intense than the earmark fight…

2010/11/23: Reuters: White House clears EPA renewable fuels standardThe White House cleared the way for the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final rule on how much ethanol and other renewable automobile fuels will be sold next year. The EPA proposed in July that biofuels fuels would account for 7.95 percent of total gasoline sales next year to meet a congressional mandate that at least 13.95 billion gallons of renewable fuels be produced in 2011. The final number, which the agency plans to issue next week, could still be changed.

2010/11/23: WaPo: Administration wants to speed up process for windmills in AtlanticThe Obama administration Tuesday announced a plan to speed up development of wind energy by searching the Atlantic Coast for the most desirable places to build windmills rather than wait for developers to propose sites that could hurt the environment or sit in the middle of a shipping lane. Under a new initiative called Smart From the Start, the Department of the Interior will identify sites in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf with “high wind potential,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. Officials said it currently takes up to nine years for an offshore project to get approval to build. Salazar said the policy change is the result of “a lesson learned” from the grueling fight to place wind turbines in Massachusetts’ scenic Nantucket Sound. Opponents have delayed construction of the Cape Wind development even though the government gave it a go-ahead in April.

2010/11/24: NYT:GW: Chemical Company Adds Lobbying Muscle for Push on Energy, EPAEastman Chemical Co. beefed up lobbying this year as it sought a host of energy priorities including climate legislation rewrites, funding for power conservation work and scuttling U.S. EPA’s effort to regulate greenhouse gases. The Kingston, Tenn.-based company spent more than $1.1 million in influence efforts through September, up 37 percent from the first nine months last year, Center for Responsive Politics data show. The company by Sept. 30 already had spent more than it had on lobbying all of last year, which at that time was a high mark of $1.08 million.

2010/11/24: TEC: On the Persecution of Michael MannThe Republican treatment of famed Climate Scientist Michael Mann, goes well beyond rational concern about scientific misconduct, and looks more and more like outright persecution of a scientist who has dared, like Galileo to contradicts the dogmas of the powerful. But Mann, like Galileo is likely to have the last laugh.

2010/11/22: ABC(Au): Farmers seek more detail on carbon guidelinesQueensland rural lobby group AgForce has cautiously welcomed the Federal Government’s release of guidelines for carbon farming opportunities. Landholders will be able to generate carbon credits by planting trees and cutting fertiliser use under a carbon trading scheme for the sector. But AgForce senior policy manager Drew Wagner says farmers are awaiting more details on how far the guidelines will extend.

2010/11/21: CBC: Australian city to be drilled for natural gasAustralia’s Greens party is warning against a mining company’s plan to drill for natural gas in the country’s largest city. Exploratory drilling is scheduled to begin in two or three months in the suburb of St. Peters, 15 kilometres west of Sydney’s downtown.

2010/11/19: BBC: India temperature rise concernsRising temperatures caused by climate change are expected to “adversely impact” water supply, farm output and forests in India by 2030, a new study released by the government says. It has projected a temperature rise of between 1.7C and 2C in India over the next 20 years. The study says India faces increased precipitation and storms and a continuing sea level rise. It also warned of food shortages because of a decline in farm output.

2010/11/22: BBC: China hints at new climate futureAt a recent meeting in Tianjin, there’s been intriguing discussion about where the host country, China, is going on climate change. And where it’s going is, it seems, towards national legislation to restrict the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. This national law is likely to emerge as part of the next five-year plan. Details are scheduled to be announced in a few months’ time.

2010/11/25: PostMedia: Climate-change agency sees end to federal funds — Foundation supported more than 200 projectsA Canadian climate-change research foundation is celebrating its 10th anniversary, but has already begun winding down its operations after failing to get new funding from the Harper government. The budget crunch at the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences comes on the heels of revelations that the government is leasing out the Amundsen, a coast guard icebreaker equipped to monitor climate change in the North, to a pair of fossil-fuel companies for oil exploration in the region.

2010/11/23: CBC: Canadian climate research fund drying upThe federal funding that supported most university-based weather and climate research for the past decade has almost run out, and there is no sign it will be renewed. The Ottawa-based Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, launched under prime minister Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government in 2000, will have given out $118 million in research grants by the time it runs dry at the end of 2011. “With no monies to hand out, the foundation will cease to exist,” said Gordon McBean, chair of the foundation’s board in an interview ahead of the foundation’s 10th anniversary celebrations on Wednesday.

2010/11/26: CBC: OPP release details of G8/G20 summit costsThe Ontario Provincial Police have released some details of the millions of dollars spent on policing during the G8 and G20 summits. The details released Thursday relate only to items costing more than $5,000, which amounted to $56 million. That amount represents only about half of the $100 million the OPP spent on the summits, held in Huntsville and Toronto the weekend of June 26-27.

2010/11/25: CBC: No officers charged over civilian G20 injuries: SIU — Excessive force used against 2 menA police watchdog is not holding any officers responsible for injuries incurred by six men during this summer’s G20 protests in Toronto. The six men in question all complained that law enforcement officers used excessive force against them at various locations across Toronto’s downtown on June 26. One man had his arm broken in an interaction with an officer, while another two suffered facial fractures. The province’s Special Investigations Unit, which probes incidents where civilians are hurt or killed in an interaction with police officers, said Thursday that it is probable excessive force was used in the case of two men who suffered facial fractures at a June 26 protest at Queen’s Park.

2010/11/26: PostMedia: Canadian Coast Guard unprepared to respond to oil spills: AuditThe Canadian Coast Guard lacks the training, equipment and management systems to fulfil its duties to respond to offshore pollution incidents such as oil spills, an internal audit reveals. The audit paints a sobering picture of an agency that would play a key role in Canada’s response to a major oil spill off the world’s longest coastline. In the event of a spill leaking from a ship, as occurred in 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground off the coast of Alaska, the Coast Guard would be the lead federal agency in the cleanup efforts. However, the audit found that Coast Guard employees are trained on an “ad hoc, regional basis,” with no national training strategy. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is relying on aging equipment – the operating status of which it is unable to track – and management controls are “either out-of-date, not functioning or not in place.”

2010/11/24: PostMedia: Climate change is a real and present dangerWith the UN Climate Change Conference set for Cancun later this month, the Senate’s decision to kill a private member’s climate-change bill is regrettable. This action was expected, given that the federal government has been opposed to meeting Kyoto commitments and did not advocate binding targets on carbon emissions at the last round of talks in Copenhagen.

2010/11/26: CBC: Lower Churchill will roll ahead: DexterThe Lower Churchill hydro megaproject in Labrador will steam forward despite the resignation of Danny Williams, says Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter. Williams, 61, who announced Thursday he will step down next week as Newfoundland and Labrador’s ninth premier, said that negotiating a deal to develop hydroelectric power on the Lower Churchill was the last goal he wanted to achieve in his political career.

2010/11/22: PhysOrg: Canada accused of trying to kill US, EU clean fuel policiesEnvironmentalists on Monday accused Canada of attempting to kill proposed US and EU clean energy policies in order to protect its oil exports.Climate Action Network Canada executive director Graham Saul told a press conference government letters, memos, speeches, and lobbyist reports assembled by the group point to a “coordinated lobbying strategy to kill climate change policies in other countries.”“This systematic effort, is being run out of Foreign Affairs and some of the briefing materials feeding into key discussions was drafted by the oil industry rather than having more neutral versions prepared by civil servants,” he said.

2010/11/22: PostMedia: Three federal departments worked to put positive spin on ‘dirty oil’Three major departments in the federal government have been actively co-ordinating a communications strategy with Alberta and its fossil-fuel industry to fight international global-warming policies that “target” oilsands production, newly released federal documents reveal. The documents, obtained by Postmedia News, suggest that Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, have collaborated on an “advocacy strategy” in the U.S. to promote the oilsands and discourage environmental-protection policies.

2010/11/25: CBC: Climate deal not expected at CancunThis year’s UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, is unlikely to yield a deal that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, Canada’s negotiator says. Guy Saint-Jacques says he hopes progress can be made on funding for developing countries and on how to monitor emissions, but the Mexican conference won’t likely result in a deal. He says it will only lay a foundation for next year’s meeting in Durban, South Africa.

2010/11/23: CBC: Coast guard ship used by oil companiesQuestions are being raised over the use of a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker by two oil companies for research that could help them make a case for drilling in the Arctic. CBC News has learned that for a minimum of $50,000 a day, BP and Imperial Oil paid to use CCGS Amundsen — Canada’s most advanced research ship which is dedicated to the study of climate change — for a total of six weeks over the past two years. The oil companies want to study the environmental impact of their exploratory oil drilling plans in the Beaufort Sea, in the Arctic Ocean.

2010/11/23: CBC: Thai firm buys oilsands stake for $2.28B USPTT Exploration and Production announced Tuesday it has reached a deal to buy a 40 per cent stake in an oilsands project in northern Alberta for $2.28 billion US. The agreement makes the Thai company a partner in Norwegian oil giant Statoil’s project.

2010/11/25: CBC: Alberta losing billions in oil royalties: reportRegan Boychuk, public policy research manager with the Parkland Institute, says in a new report that Albertans have lost billions of dollars to government mismanagement of the oil and gas royalty regime.Regan Boychuk, public policy research manager with the Parkland Institute, says in a new report that Albertans have lost billions of dollars to government mismanagement of the oil and gas royalty regime. Albertans are losing billions of dollars because of overly generous royalty cuts to the oil and gas industry, a research institute says. Regan Boychuk of the Parkland Institute, a think tank based at the University of Alberta, studied the industry’s profits for the past 10 years. In a reported titled Misplaced Generosity, Boychuk says the percentage of profits claimed by the provincial government has steadily declined. “Just the last year we looked at it — in 2008 — if the government had met its own targets, that would have meant an additional $14 billion in royalties,” Boychuk told CBC News. “That far exceeds any deficit that the province has experienced in the course of a very serious recession.” Boychuk, public policy research manager with the Parkland Institute, estimated that the government has lost $69 billion in potential revenue by not meeting royalty targets since 1999.

2010/11/22: CBC: Potash One gets $434M takeover bidVancouver-based Potash One Inc. announced Monday it has agreed to be taken over by Germany’s K+S Aktiengesellschaft in a deal worth $434 million. The firm’s board — which is headed by well-known mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland — has recommended the deal to shareholders.

2010/11/23: CBC: Ont. power bills to double over 20 yearsThe average electricity bill will double in Ontario over the next 20 years under an $87-billion plan to modernize the province’s electricity system. Ontario’s long-term energy plan, released Tuesday, calls for $33 billion in investments by government and the private sector to build two new nuclear reactors at Darlington and to refurbish 10 older units. A wind turbine feeds electricity into the Ontario grid at the CNE grounds in Toronto in February 2007. A wind turbine feeds electricity into the Ontario grid at the CNE grounds in Toronto in February 2007. (J.P. Moczulski/Reuters)It confirms Ontario’s intentions to keep getting half of the province’s electricity from nuclear and to phase out coal-fired generation by 2014 at the latest, with two coal burning units at Nanticoke set to close next year. The province is forecasting moderate growth in demand for electricity, rising only 15 per cent over the next two decades. Still, the plan calls for the average homeowner’s electricity bill to double in that time. The government admitted last week that green energy programs will be responsible for more than half of the expected 46 per cent increase in electricity rates over the next five years.

2010/11/23: CBC: Que. Innu band to defy oil-gas drilling ban — ‘The agreement is not legal': Quebec governmentAn Innu band on Quebec’s North Shore has signed an agreement to begin oil and gas exploration on its reserve despite a provincial moratorium on exploratory drilling in the area. In September the Quebec government announced a freeze on exploratory permits following an environmental impact study on the St. Lawrence estuary. The study, conducted by the provincial Natural Resources Department, indicated drilling would be devastating to fish and other wildlife that live in the estuary, the stretch of the St. Lawrence basin that runs to Anticosti Island from Quebec City.

2010/11/04: PDI: Yes, there are alternativesIn most countries, there is a dangerous myth that there is no alternative to the past 30 years’ path of gearing economies toward the global market. Yet, as financial markets stagnate and food prices swing wildly and the environment come under siege, more and more nations are taking steps to reduce their vulnerability to a volatile global economy. Some are taking steps to encourage more “rooted” alternatives.

2010/11/05: KU(Dk): Novel fuel cell catalyst lowers need for precious metalFuel cells could create a breakthrough for electric cars, because refuelling them is fast and easy, just like your traditional gas guzzler. But there’s an obstacle. Current fuel cells need platinum in order to work. And that’s expensive. Now chemists from Copenhagen, Potsdam and Hanau have taken the first step towards producing fuel cells using very little of the precious metal.

2010/11/23: PhysOrg: Who would benefit most from solar energy? Study ranks statesAmericans have become more and more concerned with the idea of using cleaner energy sources and creating new jobs through the use of solar energy. A new study from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University takes a closer look at which states might benefit the most both from generating solar energy and from consuming that energy. These are believed to be the first state rankings of their kind.

2010/11/25: PhysOrg: A high-yield biomass alternative to petroleum for industrial chemicalsA team of University of Massachusetts Amherst chemical engineers report in today’s issue of Science that they have developed a way to produce high-volume chemical feedstocks including benzene, toluene, xylenes and olefins from pyrolytic bio-oils, the cheapest liquid fuels available today derived from biomass. The new process could reduce or eliminate industry’s reliance on fossil fuels to make industrial chemicals worth an estimated $400 billion annually.

My first novel Water was published in Canada May, 2007. The American release was in October. An Introductionto the novel is available, along with the Unpublished Forewordand the Launch Talk(which includes some quotations), An overview of my writing is available here.

P.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

“Economists suffer from a deep psychological disorder that I call ‘physics envy’. We wish that 99 percent of economic behavior could be captured by three simple laws of nature. In fact, economists have 99 laws that capture 3 percent of behavior. Economics is a uniquely human endeavor …” Andrew Lo, a professor of finance at MIT